Standards. The Denver School Board in a 3-2 vote decided that aseries of math books used in 3 elementary schools did not meet the standardsset by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and removed them fromthe list of approved texts. The Saxon text books are quite popular withhome school parents, and feature old fashioned, back to basics mathinstruction.

If you do a few thousand problems, you will probably learn how to dothe math. Test scores in the 3 schools have all been near the top ofdistrict scores in standardized tests. The Board president, DeStafano, wasdefiant, making the point that the decision represents a crossroads for thedistrict. "District materials must be adopted by the board on the basis ofwhether they meet standards, not by "pressure" from parents atindividual schools." Parents have not yet mounted a recall petition for thiseducrat.

They are trying to convert the 3 back to basics schools into charterschools and withdraw from the district, though it will take them ayear or two to do so. Saxon has a pretty good series of math and sciencebooks. We solved a small algebra problem here with one of my daughters byworking through one of their books a couple of summers ago. Be very carefulabout standards - as the Blob uses them to dumb down the entire curriculum.

The Jefferson County School Board was the agent, not the Denver Schoolboard. At three middle schools in Jeffco the teachers used Saxon texts assupplements and sent them home with students often. The three schoolsare among the most affluent in the district, which was mentioned by thesuperintendent when explaining that the high achievement may not be due tothe books. Anyway, the district has a textbook committee that did notrecommend the Saxon series for the reasons mentioned. This does not meanthe books are banned, only that the district will not pay for them.Nothing prevents the parents from chipping in, or the teachers fromcontinuing to use them.

One of our studentsteaches at one of the schools and when I visited him I saw him teaching ina way that was very consistent with the NCTM Standards. After a review ofsurface area and a discussion with students about the meaning of totalsurface area and lateral surface area he had them work on a tiling problemin groups of three or four. The students seemed accustomed to suchactivities, and only when class was over and the students were leaving didI notice the Saxon books. I consider this fellow a very progressiveteacher, so any high achievement seems due more to his skills than theuse a the books as supplement. It is so disappointing in these math warsthat no one considers the critical importance of the capacity and skill ofthe individual teacher.